News

22.05.2015

Sustainable Urban China Conference took place at Metropolitan Solutions 2015 in Berlin

A big delegation of Chinese national and local governments, businesses and research institutes joined the ICLEI Sustainable Urban China Conference on 20 May in Berlin, Germany in the framework of Metropolitan Solutions 2015. The delegation was led by Han Aixing, Deputy Director General of Department of Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Science and Technology, Chinese Ministry of Housing, Urban and Rural Development (MoHURD).

In his keynote speech, Han introduced the core components of China's rapid new type urbanization and the opportunities for Sino-German cooperation in areas such as urban agglomerations, eco-cities, small towns, urban waste treatment, building efficiency, smart cities etc. His German counterpart, Franzjosef Schafhausen, Director General for Climate Change Policy, Europe and International Affairs, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) echoed with Han by reiterating the Sino-German partnership on urbanization established in 2013 and pointed out the future prospects for cooperation on urban sustainable development. Representatives from Zhangjiakou City, Chongli County, Huailai County, Haimen City and Chengdu City participated in the conference.

Shu Zhu, Regional Director of ICLEI East Asia Secretariat moderated the session of Urbanization in China and Sustainable Urban Development. In this session, Xu Zhenqiang from Chinese Society for Urban Studies and Wan Lu from Guangdong under MoHURD, Guangdong Academy of Social Science shared their observation on urbanization in China. Yang Chengkui, Deputy Secretary-General of Zhangjiakou Municipal Government and Chu Mingxing, Deputy Mayor of Haimen Municipal Government introduced their cities as well as their sustainable development experiences. In the next session on City Partnership for Sustainable Urban Development, representative from Chengdu City shared the experience of their partnership and cooperation with Bonn City.

In the afternoon, the participants also joined ICLEI Lounge Talks for further exchanges.